Wanted Modern Transformers

[john12ax7]

I need mic input, line input, line output transformers for evaluation. PCB pins preferred, new or gently used. Figured I'd check here first before contacting manufacturers. The main thing is they need to be modern versions, something I can easily order the exact same in 25-50 pc quantities. Jensen. Cinemag, Lundahl, Carnhill, etc.

 

[Whoops]

You are in California so just buy samples from Cinemag,
David is very professional and helpful.

It's the best Audio transformer company at the moment in the US and one of the best in the world,
their transformers are high quality and not over priced

 

[Snatchman]

You are in California so just buy samples from Cinemag,
David is very professional and helpful.

It's the best Audio transformer company at the moment in the US and one of the best in the world,
their transformers are high quality and not over priced

Hello. I sent you a PM....

 

[Whoops]

Hello. I sent you a PM....

Are you sure?
I didn't receive any PM from you

 

[Snatchman]

Are you sure?
I didn't receive any PM from you

Hello..I'm sorry..I sent it to another guy..My mistake..!

 

[Baltimore]

I have a lundahl LL7903 if interested

 

[Wavelength]

I would agree Cinemag makes good stuff!

 

[vintagelove]

You are in California so just buy samples from Cinemag,
David is very professional and helpful.

It's the best Audio transformer company at the moment in the US and one of the best in the world,
their transformers are high quality and not over priced

Curious why you'd say they are better than Jensen?

 

[Whoops]

Curious why you'd say they are better than Jensen?

A lot could be written about this,
but for you to understand the subject you have to understand how the Passion of one strong minded and talented person managing a company can have an outcome of products of high quality and excellence, even if the financial side is not maximized.
Jensen had those Passionate and Talented people, that were the force behind Jensen creation, development, and made that company a well known and respected name in high quality Audio Transformers.
It started with Deane Jensen with the master Ed Reichenbach designs, then after Deane passed away in 1989 it continued with the Bill Whitlock another very passionate and talented person.
In 2014 after Bill Whitlock retirement Jensen was sold to a group, called the Radial group.
When you became part of a group the goals of a company or brand change, there's more pressure for profit margins, there's reformulation of the company and production, there's also new concepts on how that company will be useful to the group it belongs to more than what was the original moto or goal of the original founders of the company.
Facility moves, parts of the production are outsourced abroad for cost saving, new suppliers with a more competitive price are used even if they sell raw materials of lower quality or different quality... and so on and so on.
So when a company is sold to a Group, Passion in Excellence is swapped for Maximizing profit.

Cinemag has a different story, and it's still different at the present.
Audio transformers guru Ed Reichenbach, yes the same one that designed transformers for Jensen, founded Reichenbach Engineering, Cinemag was part of Reichenbach Engineering and was run by Tom Reichenbach (Ed's Son).
To continue the Reichenbach amazing legacy David Geren, another very talented and passionate person, bought the company and continues up to this day to build transformers with the same care and excellence has it was when the company was founded.
David is a wonderful gentleman, generous and very professional, he runs a very organized facility and uses the best parts, raw materials and production processes for Cinemag Transformers.

When you are a wonderful person, generous, talented and passionate that will pay off in the quality of the end product, I prefer to buy those.
When you're a Group, made of anonymous people pressured for profit the outcome can be uncertain.

This is just my 2 long cents for what might seem at a first glance as a simple question

 

[nsalis]

First of all, you should make sure to spell the names correctly, otherwise it will be difficult for readers who want to follow up on the matter to google other information.
The correct name is Dean Jensen (and not...Jenson).

The correct name of the family is Reichenbach (and not Reinchenbach).

I can't say anything about the current quality of Cinemag's products because I've never used their products.
I ordered and installed hundreds of transformers from Jensen Transformers between 1984 and 2021 (the year of my retirement). The quality is undoubtedly excellent (verified by measurements taken when the systems were commissioned), and we never had a single example leave the factory defective and come to us.

What is much more important is the development work, support and efforts in educating audio professionals that owner Bill Whitlock has done. Countless AES papers, seminars and correspondence for individual advice bear witness to this. Almost everything the audio community has learned over the last few decades about how to properly connect analog audio components, especially about the role and functioning of audio transformers, and what myths about audio transmission and grounding are false, we owe to Bill Whitlock.

I did not see any significant contributions from other transformer manufacturers in this regard.

In my opinion, this counts much more than the fact that other manufacturers produce a product that works satisfactorily and for which no major defects can be proven.

Of course, I also see that since the change of Jensen products to Radial, the Jensen product line marketing is no longer maintained with the same love.

To be fair, one must also admit that the need for analog transformers has decreased, as today's a/v systems work almost exclusively without analog interfacing. Every provider of audio products must therefore of course consider how many resources they want to invest in the area of audio transformers and I have some understanding that they turn to the more profitable items.

But for those who build quality analog audio systems, the core Jensen products are still there, and personally I wouldn't specify anything else.

Bill Whitlock is still active on reputable listservs and shares his knowledge generously. There are countless links to his work on the Internet, and I can only advise younger people to benefit from this source. This way they don't learn nonsense but the facts.

Nick Salis

 

[vintagelove]

A lot could be written about this,
but for you to understand the subject you have to understand how the Passion of one strong minded and talented person managing a company can have an outcome of products of high quality and excellence, even if the financial side is not maximized.
Jensen had those Passionate and Talented people, that were the force behind Jensen creation, development, and made that company a well known and respected name in high quality Audio Transformers.
It started with Deane Jenson with the master Ed Reinchenbach designs, then after Deane passed away in 1989 it continued with the Bill Whitlock another very passionate and talented person.
In 2014 after Bill Whitlock retirement Jensen was sold to a group, called the Radial group.
When you became part of a group the goals of a company or brand change, there's more pressure for profit margins, there's reformulation of the company and production, there's also new concepts on how that company will be useful to the group it belongs to more than what was the original moto or goal of the original founders of the company.
Facility moves, parts of the production are outsourced abroad for cost saving, new suppliers with a more competitive price are used even if they sell raw materials of lower quality or different quality... and so on and so on.
So when a company is sold to a Group, Passion in Excellence is swapped for Maximizing profit.

Cinemag has a different story, and it's still different at the present.
Audio transformers guru Ed Reinchenbach, yes the same one that designed transformers for Jensen, founded Reinchenbach Engineering, Cinemag was part of Reinchenbach Engineering and was run by Tom Reinchenbach (Ed's Son).
To continue the Reinchenbach amazing legacy David Geren, another very talented and passionate person, bought the company and continues up to this day to build transformers with the same care and excellence has it was when the company was founded.
David is a wonderful gentleman, generous and very professional, he runs a very organized facility and uses the best parts, raw materials and production processes for Cinemag Transformers.

When you are a wonderful person, generous, talented and passionate that will pay off in the quality of the end product, I prefer to buy those.
When you're a Group, made of anonymous people pressured for profit the outcome can be uncertain.

This is just my 2 long cents for what might seem at a first glance as a simple question

I'm familiar with both the business and history of both companies.

What I'm not familiar with is any claim that Jensen is now using substandard materials in their transformers. Do you have a source for that claim? A measurement?

 

[JohnRoberts]

First of all, you should make sure to spell the names correctly, otherwise it will be difficult for readers who want to follow up on the matter to google other information.
The correct name is Dean Jensen (and not...Jenson).

it's actually spelled "Deane Jensen".... (RIP).

Bill Whitlock is still active on reputable listservs and shares his knowledge generously. There are countless links to his work on the Internet, and I can only advise younger people to benefit from this source. This way they don't learn nonsense but the facts.

Nick Salis

Bill Whitlock is an active member here (MisterCMRR)

JR
.

 

[ruffrecords]

Clearly we all have different experiences with transformer manufacturers. I have used Jensen in the past but never had to interact much with them simply because I only used their standard products.

Cinemag I have always found to be very helpful. Dave is a great guy and very knowledgeable about what is and is not possible.

Similarly I have had particularly excellent service from Chris Smith of OEP who has tweaked many a transformer and provided free samples until it was just right.

Last, and by no means least, the now retired Brian Sowter was a great source of pragmatic transformer info and helped me many times over the years.

And I must not forget the guys at my local transformer manufacturer, ElectroMag, who have supplied very many custom transformers to me and other group members.

The only company I have never dealt with is Lundahl but the bottom line is all the major current manufacturers still provide excellent support.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Whoops]

First of all, you should make sure to spell the names correctly
The correct name is Dean Jensen (and not...Jenson).

Sorry you got that wrong, Correct name is Deane.

My spelling mistakes where corrected and edited, thank you so much for letting me know

What is much more important is the development work, support and efforts in educating audio professionals that owner Bill Whitlock has done. Countless AES papers, seminars and correspondence for individual advice bear witness to this. Almost everything the audio community has learned over the last few decades about how to properly connect analog audio components, especially about the role and functioning of audio transformers, and what myths about audio transmission and grounding are false, we owe to Bill Whitlock.

For sure Bill Whitlock is a very Knowledgeable, talented and passionate person.
And it's amazing and impressive the amount of Knowledge that he shared over the years, it's very altruistic of him for sure.
Bill is also a member here, he always provides great contributions, we are all lucky to have him here as a member.

But that has nothing to do with the question asked, my reply and the Topic.
It's completely off topic and completely irrelevant for a conversation about how is Jensen at the present, and what happened to Jensen in the last 10 years.

To be fair, one must also admit that the need for analog transformers has decreased

Sorry mate, but that's completly untrue.

Cinemag in the last 10 years have seen a big increase in the number of orders, Dave could be more precise about the actual number, but last time I was with Dave (last January) he told me orders at the present where 3x times higher than 5 years ago, and they can't supply all the demand they have at the moment.
That's because he doesn't want to increase production (staff and facilities) in an hurry and lowering the quality standards.

Check their clients in their website.

So in the case of Cinemag it's a Fact that the need for Analog transformers has Increased.

 

[nsalis]

I'm familiar with both the business and history of both companies.

What I'm not familiar with is any claim that Jensen is now using substandard materials in their transformers. Do you have a source for that claim? A measurement?

That's not at all what I wanted to say. If it somehow came across like that, I worded it badly and I apologize. What I meant was that on the website of the current owner, the Jensen Transformer products are presented less prominently than before, and that unfortunately a number of products that existed before are no longer advertised.

As for the quality, I have no doubt that it is still top notch.